Toward the end of December last year, I was at the dog pound picking up some donations when I overheard a conversation about an almost unadoptable dog. I asked to see her (wondering at that time why?) and that is when I met Journey a 10 plus year old female hound or terrier mix. She was in the kennel surrounded by pits and pit mixes looking absolutely terrified. Her muzzle was grizzled with gray hairs and she was hunched in the back of the kennel. Her pleading eyes met mine and sent a message: “Get me out of here please?” I did.

It was clear from the beginning that although someone took great pain to teach her “tricks” She whirls and dances on her hind legs every time we feed her, she sits on command, knows all the basic commands and wants to shake the paw of every kind soul she meets, they did not pay attention to the fact that she is allergic to everything under the sun. This resulted in her ears  turning into what one vet called a “hot mess” and another calling it a “train wreck.” They are full of scar tissue and congealed blood and she has a bad infection of pseudomonas inside. I have since found out that pseudomonas is a opportunistic bacterial infection and will take advantage of dogs in compromised immune systems and invade their ears or their mouths. She had dark pudding like substances coming out of her ears and her ears are lumpy and misshapen. They look, like one vet tech so succinctly said, like miniature sandbags. When she is in pain, she is in pain quite a bit, she shakes her head violently back and forth further causing damage.

Her skin also shows damage from the allergies which turned out to be: chicken, turkey, beef, pork, soy, milk and eggs. Her stomach was charcoal black but the pills to stop the yeast infection seem to be working and now the black is a bit lighter in color. We have her on a hypo-allergenic diet- NO treats or human foods and this is helping her out as well.

She is so gentle with the kitties until they pull her ears and then she yelps in pain and runs to hide under the bed. We have been treating the ears with all sorts of combinations of drugs, ear washes, ear drops, salve and recently, we have put her on prednisone when her ear flaps turned the color of strawberries. She has had two surgical cleanings or her ear canals and now, they want me to take her to a dermatologist for a second opinion. I called that clinic, they want $300.00 to walk through the door.

It is astounding to me that Mike and I have been married for so long and yet, we live virtually off his paychecks (social security and retirement) It just doesn’t go very far.We own no fancy vehicles, sold our boat before we left Alaska, don’t go on vacation and spend our time paying on our debt and living expenses. With me having to take care of Mike at least 14 hours in a day, I lost my job years ago. It can be a bit overwhelming.

I just really need your thoughts. If we go to the specialist, we might be able to handle some of the cost, but they don’t do payments. But even just talking to the specialist over the phone we are looking at one of two operations for Journey to get her comfortable- an abulation (removal of both of her ear canals) or a complete docking of her ear flaps bringing them almost to the side of her head to get rid of the pain, inflammation and constant problems she is having. OR they can put her on prednisone for the rest of her life (never a good option) too many side effects to that drug and keep her on pain killers that make her goofy in order to give her quality of life- OR we can say, we gave her a few months of relatively normal life and put her down when the pain becomes so severe for her that she shows us she no longer wants to live. 🙁 The two operations would run about $1,000.00 an ear just because of the amount of lifelong damage the ear flaps and ear canals contain.

I know she isn’t a cat, but she is an important member of this family and there have been many a homeless kitty who she has licked and mothered and let snuggle up to her hairy belly. I would hate to cut her life short because it is inconvenient or difficult for us to budget her needs into our life.

One thing is clear, had I left her where she was, they would have put her down. When I see her flying outside in the pasture chasing the wild turkeys or following a scent- she is beauty in motion. She runs like a gazelle and you wouldn’t even know she was an old lady. I named her Journey because I knew she was on her last journey in life and it would be with us. I guess, I was hoping the journey might be a bit longer than the vets are leading me to believe.

Journey on one of her bad days: